Today our final children's camp on the trip began. The camp is at Im Jai orphanage. We also took down 12 kids from Jireh and the team helped out teaching English and organising games for the afternoon. Today was a hard day by all accounts. The three classes beign taught differed greatly in their ability and knowledge of English. This made teaching difficult especially with the eldest group many of which were older that their teachers. But everyone did well to stick with the lessons and did their best to improvise.
Pete had a lazy day getting his sermon ready for the service on Sunday. Thanks to Mrs Weston for her much valued updates from home. Jake passes on his gratitude.
In the evening we went back to Im Jai for tea and then the young people had arranged a praise party for themselves. Most of the team returned back for some well earned R&R and Marylene gave a talk to the young people about where they fitted into Gods plan for Thailand.
As we listened (with translation obviously) you could not but be impressed with two things. Firstly the privilege of the opportunity to share some of God's love for these young people. The international reputation Thailand has in respect of children is not good. To have the chance to remind these people that God loves them and is there for them was great.
Secondly their manners, the group sat quietly and attentively listenng to her for a good 40 minutes, far longer than we would think our own children could listen in the UK. One of the challenges to me from the trip here has been looking at the young people here and thinking what a disservice that Thai reputation is to them. These are perfectly polite and respectful children quite the opposite to some of our little darlings back home!
Plenty of food for thought for any parent, although quite what you do with that knowledge I'm at a loss to fathom. Less than a week till be are all home now and the team is getting tired from giving out so much. Please pray for our camp tomorrow and for the safety of the Bird family as Joanna and Simon fly out to Norway and Haiti respectively. Pray that all the organisations will go smoothly and they will find time in the busy schedule to have some family time.
On a more personal note. Happy birthday to my dad. It is St Swithins day today so if it's raining in the UK today it is going to rain for forty days and forty nights! Either way pops many happy returns on the day.
Pete and Jane
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